US: Mylan agreed to pay $96.5 million in Provigil antitrust class action

Mylan has agreed to pay $96.5 million to settle claims by drug purchasers that it delayed launching a generic version of Cephalon’s narcolepsy drug Provigil in exchange for payment from Cephalon.

The settlement was disclosed in a filing by the drug purchasers in Pennsylvania federal court on Friday, and must still be approved by the court.

The money will go to purchasers that bought brand-name Provigil from Cephalon directly, like wholesalers and distributors.

A group of direct purchasers sued Mylan, Cephalon and two other companies – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Ranbaxy Laboratories – in 2006. They brought their case on behalf of a nationwide class of direct purchasers.

The purchasers said Cephalon reached settlements in patent lawsuits it brought against Teva, Mylan and Ranbaxy in which it paid them to keep generic versions of Provigil off the market until 2012. The lawsuit said the settlements, reached in 2005 and 2006, violated federal antitrust law.

Teva bought Cephalon in 2011. In April 2015, it settled with the direct purchasers for $512 million.

In May 2015, it agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle similar claims by the US Federal Trade Commission, which had separately sued Cephalon over the Provigil settlements.

Full Content: Reuters

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